Conference nyoss1::market_investing

    Oops... forgot to mention:
    
    Pre- req  Windows 3.1
    	      3.5 disk drive
    
    Phone # for C/A is 1-800-free-money  (1-800-373-3666)
    
    good luck getting through: it took me a while.
    

    It's a poor marketing campaign that can't establish the name of the
    product.
    
    In any case, the original Quicken is a product of Intuit,Inc.

Four weeks for delivery. Sounds like for $6.95 you get to be one of the inital
1000 field testers :-)

    Try: 1-800-225-5224, too. CA will be happy to take your order at this
    number too.

    Is this legit??  I guess I am always skeptical of 'something for
    nothing' scenes like this - or practiucally nothing ($6.95 is not that
    big of an investment!).  Anybody care to comment on the company - I
    know of Kiplinger but is this actually their outfit?
    
    Cheers,
             Tim

    I ordered a copy yesterday.  Price is great... even just to try  
    it out.  CA has been around a while.  I've been a shareholder for
    about a year or so.  Stock perf has been quite good over that 
    period;~100%.
        
    CA's claim to fame was in the mainframe software arena, but when they
    saw that drying up, the started getting into PC products. Their growth 
    has been fueled largely by acquisitions of such popular products like 
    Clipper (X-base product), and they now have a full set of PC/Windows 
    products; data-base, Word Processing, etc...  Check out any PC Mag, 
    and they usually have one of those thick, multi-page,[annoying] adds. 
        
    I beleive that CA is the second largest software firm next to MS.
    
    -Brian
        

Here's my thoughts are CA.

If you buy Quicken or MYM for say $20 in Egghead, I suspect that
Egghead pays about $12 for each copy. Egghead also has a deal
where if you return the package, the mfg has to credit Egghead.
Add in the cost and the net to a software mfg is probably $8-10.

In this deal, CA gets to 
	- bill the customer immediately,
	- get a customer list,
	- probably  makes a profit on the package,
	- and get an opportunity to sell an upgrade.

The strategy that software companies have adapted is NOT to
put all the bells and whistle in one release but to dribble it
out over time.  I suspect that there are desireable but not
essential features have been be omitted from this version.

CA has a reputation for pricing low and charging for 
enhancements once you're locked in.  All in all, it's  pretty
good marketing program.

Gim

    It sounds like they're putting together a nice mailing list database
    to use/sell, and it only cost you $6.95 for the priviledge of being
    on it.

FWIW, CA acquires small software companies, cans their developers, and markets
the software.

    I've never understood why DEC doesn't charge for subsequent releases
    of a product. The PC software way seems much more sensible.
    
    Dave

>     I've never understood why DEC doesn't charge for subsequent releases
>     of a product. The PC software way seems much more sensible.

	I believe we do charge, unless they've purchased a maint.
	contract??

re .13:  Or found a bug...

Matt

    My copy of Simply Money came yesterday - just 10 days after I placed
    the order.  I'm impressed.  It comes with a full DOC set, license, and 
    media.  I'm a long time Quicken user (and yes it reads and writes 
    quicken files) so I'll try to pull together some objective comps
    between the two packages.
    
    -Brian
    

    Anyone taken a look at this yet??
    My copy arrived today, but I'm having trouble
    importing my Quicken data file.  But then again,
    I'm a software bonehead......
    

You need to create a .QIF file via quicken export for each account you wish to
transfer (ie: VANGUARD.QIF, CHECKING.QIF, SAVE.QIF...) and then use the import 
dialog box in Simply-Money to create the account.  I've only been played with
it a little bit (mine arrived this afternoon), but so far, I think it looks like
I'll like it better than Quicken.

Tom

Or, the free software could cost you $13.90, if you and your wife both order a
copy without telling each other.

As a result I have an extra, brand new copy which is looking for a good home. 
Please send me mail (EPS::MEGA) if you are interested.

Thanks
- Chris

>                        <<< Note 498.18 by EPS::MEGA >>>
>                                -< Extra extra >-

The extra copy has been claimed.  Thanks.

- Chris

    WELL ...
    
    Since nobody else has entered their "experience" with CA-Simply Money,
    allow me:
    
    User Profile: Long time Quicken user with 2+ years of data loaded.
    Always looking for better ways to do things and make life easier.
    
    Actions Taken: Ordered the software, received it much quicker than
    anticipated. Loaded it forthwith. Played around with the software
    (without any real data behind it) to develop a reaction .. "Hey, this
    is pretty neat!" Then proceeded to take a few selected
    accounts from my Quicken application and export them to the appropriate
    QIF format for transfer into CA-Simply Money.
    
    Transfer in took a while for some accounts (e.g., 2+ years of checks
    and the associated deposits/withdrawals). However, I took this in
    stride, thinking that "in the end, things will be better".
    
    After loading 4-5 out of the 15+ things I track with Quicken, I decided
    to take QA-Simply Money for a test drive.
    
    The Results: I deleted this crap off my system within hours of taking
    it for the test drive. The reason: It was PATHETIC in terms of
    performance on my laptop. For example: In Quicken, I can get a Net
    Worth Statement (or a number of other reports) within seconds. With
    only a few accounts of the total I use loaded, my laptop went to sleep
    trying to generate a Net Worth statement with CA-Simply Money. To be
    more specific, it took OVER 8 MINUTES!!
    
    An acquaintance (who had similar "slowness" problems) called their tech
    support line and was told that slow performance was possible if the
    system it was running on didn't have at least 2 megs of memory (my
    laptop has 8). He expressed surprise that slowness was an issue, but
    said that there were a number of system parameters (which he was
    perfectly willing to walk us through) that could be reset to increase
    performance. 
    
    I am not willing to mess around with resetting my system to increase
    performance when current performance is so far removed from what I am
    used to with Quicken. (If it was 30 seconds vs. 15 seconds I might
    bother, but when it is several minutes vs. a 15 seconds ... nevermind!)
    
    Overall, I wasn't impressed ... in case you couldn't tell. 
    
    /se
    

    Check today's WSJ  9-SEP-1993 for an evaluation of Quicken vs
    CA-Money. There are plus and minus for both quicken and CA-Money.
    
    I use Quicken for my checks and MYM V9.0 for investments. I tried out
    CA-Money and was not impressed.
    
    The WSJ article mentioned that CA makes their money on the checks and
    upgrades.
    
    Gim
    

I've been using MoneySmith for about a year.  MS is a simple, no frills
finance and investment tracking package.  With a year's worth of data
in MS, I can get reports, graphs, and reconciliations in seconds.

I tried CA-Simply Money, and after trying to add a month or so worth of
checks and pay stubs, I blew it away off of my 386/20sx.  Too slow,
too many keystrokes, and mouse movements.  Nice reports, but not
worth waiting for.

I also tried CA-Simply Money and am about to delete it.  I currently use a 
very simple spreadsheet I worked up in Excel.  Since I like to play what-if 
games and have spent some time working up simulation routines for many 
market and economic options, it seems that CA is Simply Limiting.  (Aside 
to Steve, what takes 23 minutes on my 486dx66 in excel took over 15 HOURS 
in CA.  Yeah!  Way to program!)

I have tried MYM (albeit an early version) and found Excel to greatly out
perform it.  Is MYM much improved over V7?   Can you do modeling in any of
the other products (MS Money, Money Smart, Quicken...)  Tracking alone does
not seem very hard with a spreadsheet, what advantage does everybody see to
the applications?  I find entering checks cumbersome, is this a simple 
lazyness problem or a something that takes a little getting used to?

Matt

    V7 of MYM had many bugs. So many that they sent a 7.1 version to all
    their service customers, regardless of whether they had called in with
    a problem. V9 is significantly better, but I'm not sure what you mean
    by modeling. 

	Well they must not of sold their 1st million copies yet as
	the price is still $6.95 + S&H (how much is the S&H BTW?).

	In any case, does anyone know if it runs under Windows NT?

    The software is *free*!  S&H is the $6.95.... or so they say.
    So your total hit is the $6.95.
    
    -BJ

    The New York Times announced today that Computer Associates is releasing
    another "free software" offer.  This time it's CA Simply Tax, their tax
    preparation package for the 1993 tax season.  You can get your copy by
    calling CA at 1-800-7FREETAX (1-800-737-3382).  Like most "free" offers
    you have to cough up $9.95 for shipping and handling.  It comes in both
    DOS and Windows versions.
    
    There are actually two versions of this program.  This offer gets you
    the "early" version because the IRS hasn't released the final versions
    of the 1993 forms.  The rules and rates, however, are known so you can
    start your end of year planning now.  The early version comes with a
    coupon to get the "final" version for $3.95 when it's available at the
    end of January.
    
    CA did this as a follow on to their June offer for CA Simply Money, a
    personal finance package.  You can get both packages under the name CA
    Simply Finance for $14.95.
    

>                               -< CA Simply Tax >-

Anyone try out their $10 CA Simply Tax yet and care to give review of it?

								_Mike

    I have it and have tried it and with the exception of it being DOS
    based, I've no complaints. I really expect to just take the output
    of the preliminary version and copy it to the 1040 forms rather
    than get the final update or the state stuff so I won't be able
    to review the final product. My tax situation is quite complicated
    and I haven't found a case it doesn't cover yet and the Q/A dialogue
    is quite easy to deal with once you get over your/my tendency to try
    to bypass it when I know what I'm doing and don't really want to deal
    with the BS.

    I tried it this past weekend and did run into trouble.  I began by
    using the "Interview" feature of Simply Tax.  Interview steps you
    through the 1040 form.  After linking to the "Depreciation and
    Amortization" form I attempted to go back and review the calculations. 
    Simply Tax I assumed tried to relink and got an unrecoverable error. 
    Unfortuneatly I had not saved up to that point and lost everthing.  I
    was also unable to execute the program again from the particular client
    I was on (we have Simply Tax on a File Service).  I was able to get
    back into from another client.  This all happed on V1.0 which came out
    in December.
    
    Rob.

	_Simply Money_ is calculating my net worth using only the COST
	BASIS of my mutual funds, NOT the current NAV.  Other portfolio
	value reports accurately reflect the current prices.

	Should the net worth calculation use what I paid for shares in
	a fund, or is this a bug?

	Thanks,

	Dave